Legendary Penn State coach Joe Paterno was fired yesterday by the school’s Board of Trustees. The Board also fired its president Graham Spanier.
While the Spanier decision was an easy one to make (the way he bungled the sex abuse allegations against a former assistant coach was sickening), the Paterno decision had to be tough. I mean, we are talking about a coaching legend in a small college town who was revered. And judging from the reaction of those college kids, the Board knew that firing Paterno would not be a popular decision.
However, the reaction from the students justified why firing Paterno was the right decision. The last thing the university needed was Paterno coaching the last home game of his career in front of 100,000 screaming, adoring fans. It would have been a glorified pep rally for Paterno, despite of what he didn’t do to help that rape victim. Speaking of the victims, how would they have felt seeing that?
I said it before, and I’ll say it again: Paterno did not any thing wrong LEGALLY, but did so MORALLY. Why Paterno never confronted that pedophile over the allegation was beyond me.
Paterno seems to be a really good old dude who made a terrible decision, and must suffer the consequences.
Categories: college football, sports story
Completely agree!
I agree that it was the right decision but it shouldn’t have been a tough decision. Either you stand with the victims or you stand with the perpetrator and his protectors. If that is a tough decision then maybe the board needs to resign as well.
Props to trustees for making a quick decision.
The grad student needs to go too if he’s still there.
Why that grad assistant is still on the coaching staff is beyond me…
I completely agree. It has definitely tainted Paterno’s legacy. Check out my thoughts at http://foultalk.wordpress.com
I think it is still to be seen whether Joe Pa did nothing illegal. In any case, if Joe Pa isn’t sued by these victims for millions and millions of dollars I’d be surprised. It seems that he was a very good friend of Sandusky. How couldn’t he know? This is a crime of omission. He should have done everything possible to end Sandusky’s reign of terror.
Which was exactly why Paterno had to go. A lot of people are still missing the point there. That sick pervert was Paterno’s right-hand man. The fact that Paterno allegedly did not even confront Sandusky over those allegations should have merited his firing alone…